Pictures of the day: 30 June 2011

This image provided by NASA shows the galaxy best known as Messier 78. The image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope exposes the depths of this dusty nebula with its infrared vision, showing stellar infants that are lost behind dark clouds when viewed in visible light. The two round greenish nebulae are actually cavities carved out of the surrounding dark dust clouds. The extended dust is mostly dark, even to Spitzer's view, but the edges show up in mid-wavelength infrared light as glowing, red frames surrounding the bright interiors. A string of baby stars that have yet to burn their way through their natal shells can be seen as red pinpoints on the outside of the nebula.